A blog for The Urutsk Cycle and Related Subjects,
including the URUTSK: World of Mystery RPG.
Shipwrecked survivors of a galaxy-spanning empire (ruined when the core exploded) settle upon a wetlands world occupied by humans and other species. They then poke through ruins of their Ancient ancestors as they strive to regain space and then, starflight.

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Saturday, May 16, 2009

Writing this version of the Urutsk material for the Old School gaming community has served to unlock information; ask questions; and generally expand the detail of this earlier historical period of the world.

While I have covered this period in significant detail, it has been from Urutsk system sibling Aqmlk (the 4th planet)'s perspective. The Imperial Diaspora, the largely unseen Dragon War, and the slow integration of Imperial advanced culture and technology with the martial bloc mega-state, bronze-age society of the 'native' Aqmlkean cousins.

It was only in my previous playtest campaign, using my nTellIGo game engine, that their Dryvv characters travelled to Urutsk, and to the mountain halls of thrice-ancient Bereme Oykh. Their time there in the cyclopean depths and massive architecture of the Ancients brought them in contact with their inky brethren; the dark blood rekindled by horrors that had befallen the People; and they wrought prophecies in the presence of their distant and fractional kin.One such task was the ringing of the Grand Bell. When I described the cast-metal bell's size as roughly that of the Rotunda on the U.S. Capitol building in Washington, D.C., my players finally looked on with the degree of understanding how large a scale I was describing.

The history of post-Departure Urutsk (roughly 600 years after Vol. I's era) had been played out in earlier decades, but I am uncertain of how much will survive the assaying flame; keeping the fun and mystery, minus the occasionally gonzo territory I was far more prone to travel in days of yore.

In any case, I have lunch to eat, and my 2x monthly C&C game set in Freeport to attend.